June 29, 2011 Workout Summary

My 11th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

StrongLifts 5x5 Progress 6/29/2011

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/29/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	185 lbs	+50 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	225 lbs	+40 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	165 lbs	+20 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	85 lbs	+25 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	65 lbs	+20 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	110 lbs	+20 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	7.5 lbs	+7.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	162.2 lbs	+7.6 lbs

Squat
I completed 5/5/3/3/2 at 185 lbs. I've always been bad about not squatting down as far as I should. I've been a lot better, but I started off with the advice "you should try to go down to parallel". I ended up doing sorta parallel squats. Then I started StrongLifts and I've been doing squats that are just on the edge of good form.  But I've seen videos of other StrongLifts members going what looked like below parallel to me. So then I learned about having the hip joint go below the knee joint before squatting back up. I realized that I don't go down far enough.  I figured that 185 lbs was a good weight to stall at since it looks good with the 25 lb weights on each side. So this workout I made sure that every squat down was far enough. I was pretty optimistic after the first 2 sets that I wasn't going to stall even with better form. But then the third set came, and it was all down hill from there.


Bench
I completed 5/3/2/1/0 at 165 lbs. Of course, right after LoneWolfArcher comments on how high my bench is, I stall out, hahaha. I'm sure this was actually a combination of being tired during my workout and wearing myself out from squats. When I did my warmup set at 135 lbs, I thought, "Man, this is heavy. I'm going to add 30 lbs to this?"

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 85 lbs. I've been using the straight curl bars for these so that I don't have to wait on/take up a squat rack. They didn't have an 85 lbs straight bar so I ended up doing 90 lbs, but for the sake of progression, I'm pretending that it was 85 lbs.

Calves
I completed 5x5 at 110 lbs.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 2.5 lbs

Weight
I weighed 162.2 lbs. I finally broke 162 lbs, but it's only been a 0.6 lb improvement over the number last week. Increasing my calorie intake is looking more and more inevitable.

Extra
If you're looking for another StrongLifts 5x5 blog to follow, check out Lone Wolf Archer's blog. This guy has been following the StrongLifts 5x5 workout for 15 weeks now. It's nice to be able to read about his success, not only where he's at now, but the challenges he's been through.  It's encouraging to read back through posts where he previously stalled, but then broke through the plateau.  It keeps my morale up on days like today when I'm stalling all over the place.

June 27, 2011 Workout Summary

My 10th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

StrongLifts 5x5 Progress 6/27/2011

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/27/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	180 lbs	+45 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	225 lbs	+40 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	160 lbs	+15 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	80 lbs	+20 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	65 lbs	+20 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	105 lbs	+15 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	7.5 lbs	+7.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	161.8 lbs	+7.2 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 180 lbs. Nothing new, just some heavier weight.

Overhead Press
I completed 5x5 at 65 lbs. We rushed these sets so that someone else could use the squat rack. I only got about a 45 second break between sets, but it was still no problem.

Deadlift
I completed 1x5 at 225 lbs. This is a new personal record. Before starting StrongLifts, I could only do 225 for 1 rep. I feel like it's important to mention when I break my "before StrongLifts records", because on Mehdi's website, everyone reports their progress from the bar. It's hard to gauge how much actual strength they gained because there is a lot of fluff in the numbers.  I could lift 165 lbs on squat before StrongLifts. I could have started with the bar and said that I gained 135 lbs on squat, but I've really only gained about 15 lbs.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 0 lbs. I deloaded after failing 3 times at 7.5 lbs. I can say that my form was much better than when I started.

Weight
I weighed 161.8 lbs. I wanted to weigh 162 lbs, but it didn't happen. I gained 0.8 lbs in the last week. I want to gain a pound a week. So if I have another week of the same, I'll need to increase my calorie intake.

June 24, 2011 Workout Summary

My 9th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

StrongLifts 5x5 Progress 6/24/2011

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/24/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	175 lbs	+40 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	215 lbs	+30 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	160 lbs	+15 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	80 lbs	+20 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	60 lbs	+15 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	105 lbs	+15 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	7.5 lbs	+7.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	161.8 lbs	+7.2 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 175 lbs.  After accidentally putting 175 lbs on the bar 2 workouts ago and struggling, it's amazing to think that I completed all 5x5 reps without much of a problem.

Bench
I completed 5x5 at 160 lbs.  After failing at 155 lbs, I was worried that my progression was going to come to a screeching halt and that future progress on bench was going to come painfully slow.  Completing all the reps at 160 lbs on the first try really encouraged me. I hope that I can continue on the progression without deloading for quite some time.  This is also definitely a new personal record for me. I have never done 5 legitimate reps at 160 lbs, let alone 5x5.

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 80 lbs. I focused more on keeping my shoulder blades together and keeping my lower back straight.  The rows felt better, and I've got a lot more progression ahead of me.

Calves
I completed 5x5 at 105 lbs. I can feel the burn in my calves, but the weight doesn't seem all that high, and I don't struggle.  I think this can be attributed to my lack of previous calf training.

Abs
I completed 5/5/2/5/4 at 7.5 lbs. These are just a real challenge. It's time to deload for my next workout since this was my 3rd failure at 7.5 lbs. I'll be going back to 0 lbs. On a side note, my abs already seem pretty big. I need to get rid of just a few percent body fat and I'd have a nicely visible six pack. I've wondered whether I really need to keep doing a separate ab exercise, but I've never seen anyone complain about having abs that that are too big. So I'm going to continue with them.

Weight
I weighed 161.8 lbs. I'm so close to 162 lbs. I guess an extra fifth of a pound isn't anything significant, but for someone like me, who has never weighed 162 lbs, it's a big deal. I'm always hoping that when I step on the scale after a workout, I'm going to see the biggest number I've ever seen.

June 22, 2011 Workout Summary

My 8th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

StrongLifts 5x5 Progress 6/22/2011

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/22/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	170 lbs	+35 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	215 lbs	+30 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	155 lbs	+10 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	75 lbs	+15 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	60 lbs	+15 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	100 lbs	+10 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	7.5 lbs	+7.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	161.6 lbs	+7 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 170 lbs. I think I've finally got the low-bar position figured out. My problem was that I wasn't keeping my upper back straight.  This workout, I squeezed my shoulder blades together as hard as I could, and low-bar position felt pretty comfortable. The 170 lbs felt good. Last workout, 175 lbs felt really heavy, but now I think I'll get 5x5 no problem on Friday.  It's crazy that leg muscles grow that fast.

Overhead Press
I completed 5x5 at 60 lbs. Getting harder, but I've still got a ways to go before reaching my max.

Deadlift
I completed 1x5 at 215 lbs.  This was pretty hard. The bar was coming off of the floor really slowly, but I got all 5 reps out and probably could have done more.  I don't know if I'm actually about to stall or if this is just the first time I've really pushed my deadlift.

Abs
I completed 5/5/5/2/2 at 7.5 lbs.  I improved from last time, but I was hoping for more on the last 2 sets.

Notes
The guy in the squat rack next to me was doing low-bar squats with good form at 225+ lbs.  He moved on to overhead press then deadlift. I almost asked him if was doing StrongLifts too.  If I see him again, I definitely will.

Lifting for Strength vs. Lifting for Size

I thought this was a really good article.  I've been interested in the whole size vs. strength debate. Lately, I've really been looking for a physiological explanation for the different types of muscle building. With a quick google search, you can find that muscular growth is called hypertrophy and that the two primary types are myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic. Some facts are that myofibrillar hypertrophy means an increase in the number of muscle fibers and that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy means an increase in the size of muscle fibers because of an increase in sarcoplasm in the fibers themselves. The myth is that you can actually train your muscles for one type of hypertrophy over the other. The fact is that there is that there is no research that suggests that different types of training result in any difference in the relative amount of each type of hypertrophy. They simply happen together. Unfortunately, the myth that you can make your muscles larger (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) with no effect on strength (myofibrillar hypertrophy) is persisted by the observance of guys at the gym who appear to have giant muscles lifting tiny weights and guys with smaller muscles lifting heavy weights.  Many people forget that strength comes largely from neurological and other factors. The article does a good job of clearing up the myth of "non-functional" muscle.

June 20, 2011 Workout Summary

My 7th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/20/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	165 lbs	+30 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	205 lbs	+20 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	155 lbs	+10 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	75 lbs	+15 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	55 lbs	+10 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	100 lbs	+10 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	7.5 lbs	+7.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	161.0 lbs	+6.4 lbs

Squat
I completed 1x5 at 175 lbs and 4x5 at 165 lbs.  I was supposed to be doing 165 lbs today. I loaded up the bar and went to do my first set.  It was hard, and I had to pause for a second after the 3rd and 4th reps.  I thought, "This is the heaviest extra 5 pounds I've ever added..." Then I realized that I can't count, and I was actually doing 175 lbs. The 4 sets of 165 lbs seemed pretty easy after that.

Bench
I completed 5x5 at 155 lbs. After missing my last rep at 155 lbs last bench day, it was a really good feeling to be able to crank out all five sets like they were nothing. I was able to push out all the reps quickly and painlessly with good form.  My chest was killing me after the last bench day, but today it feels like I didn't even workout. Hopefully that means that I can continue going up in weight without another stall.

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 75 lbs.

Calves
I completed 5x5 at 100 lbs.

Abs
I completed 5/5/3/2/2 at 7.5 lbs. That small bit of extra weight really increases the intensity of the crunches. I was able to clearly distinguish my failed reps from my successful reps though. So now I can look for an improvement next workout.

Weight
I weighed 161 lbs. I bounced back up to my previous high. I'm hoping to push through it and see a higher number this week. I think that I've gained all the water weight or whatever that I'm going to gain. So higher numbers should come slowly and reflect legitimate mass gain (hopefully muscle). I expect about a pound and a half a week.

June 17, 2011 Workout Summary

My 6th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/17/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	160 lbs	+25 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	205 lbs	+20 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	155 lbs	+10 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	70 lbs	+10 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	55 lbs	+10 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	95 lbs	+5 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	5 lbs	+5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	160.0 lbs	+5.4 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 160 lbs. I originally said that I thought my hip flexors were hurting because of squats, but I think that squats just stretch my hip flexors and that they actually hurt from abs.

Deadlift
I completed 1x5 at 205 lbs. This felt good which it should, because by max is 225 lbs.

Overhead Press
Although this was still pretty easy, I felt it in my shoulders after the workout. I already know that my shoulders are relatively weak and need to start catching up.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 5 lbs. This was pretty hard. I wasn't sure I fully completed a couple of the reps, but I'm going to go up in weight next workout anyways.  I'll be more conscious about getting the full rep before a move up again after that though. Like I said, I think these lifts were hurting my hip flexors. I'm doing inclined crunches on an ab bench at almost a 45 degree angle. It takes quite a bit of force from my hip flexors to keep my butt in the right spot.  The pain is very similar to DOMS. So I'm not worried.

Weight
I weighed 160.0 lbs.  This was a drop of a pound from my last workout, which is pretty insignificant. Of course, I always want to see my weight go up, but a pound difference doesn't mean much. I only care about seeing the long term (weekly/monthly) numbers going up.

Why I'm Not Concerned About Plateauing on Bench Press

As you can tell from my last workout summary, I didn't get all 5 reps on my last set at 155 lbs. It was disappointing to me, because I'm trying to blast my way up to 225 lbs.  It was also the first time that I failed to get the full 5x5 on any lift, so I figured it deserved a post. It's important to know that I'm not frustrated or discouraged from failing on this set for several reasons.

My Bench is Still the Same as My Squat
I did 155 lbs for both bench and squat last workout. Of course, I should be able to squat a much higher weight than I bench, because the muscles that perform squat are much larger than the muscles that perform bench. So I knew that bench would fail before squat. I can't let myself get discouraged until my squat and bench are back in proportion.

I Know I Can Get It Next Time
It's only one more rep. I mean come on... If my muscles don't recover enough to do one more rep then they are just completely worthless. When this happens to you, you need to remember that your muscles will overcompensate for the weight, and you will be strong enough to do it next time. If you don't get it next time, you either didn't have enough recovery time, weren't eating enough, or couldn't lift it for some mental problem

I've Seen Others Fail Then Succeed
I'm looking at a graph right now of a guy who failed on a set of bench and then powered through to increase his weight for several workouts before he failed again. The point is, failing on a set does not mean that it is a ceiling. There's no invisible wall that is stopping your muscles from growing to the point where they overcome that weight. I'll say it again: as long as you're eating right and recovering for long enough, your muscles will overcompensate. It doesn't matter if it's a 100 lbs or 300 lbs.

5 Pounds Is A Lot To Ask of Your Chest
Let's face it, 5 pounds is a big increase for your chest muscles. Sure, it might be a piece of cake on squat. But your chest is just smaller. It's going to overcompensate just like your legs, but it won't overcompensate as much. So there's no reason to get discouraged. You should expect your bench to go a workout without increasing every now and then. It doesn't mean you didn't get any stronger. It just means you didn't get 5 pounds stronger.

June 15, 2011 Workout Summary

My 5th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/15/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	155 lbs	+20 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	195 lbs	+10 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	155 lbs	+10 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	70 lbs	+10 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	50 lbs	+5 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	95 lbs	+5 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	2.5 lbs	+2.5 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	161.0 lbs	+6.4 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 155 lbs. I felt strong and confident on this lift. However, my hip flexors hurt a little before, during, and after this lift.  I think that I'm not keeping my weight centered over my heels. I'm probably leaning back too far in an effort to keep my back straight. So my hip flexors are working harder than they should. I'll pay better attention to my form and do some stretching for future lifts.

Bench
I completed 5/5/5/5/4 at 155 lbs.  I pushed really hard on bench, but I just couldn't get the last rep.  In fact, I was doing good to get the last rep on my 4th set. Next time, I'm going to try to lift faster on the first sets and push through this plateau. I want to get my bench up to 225 lbs as fast as I can. 225 lbs is my short term goal, because I've always given a lot of respect to guys that can bench with 2 plates on each side.

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 70 lbs.  This wasn't jokingly easy like the past two times, but I can definitely keep going higher. I want to get this to 135 lbs short term.

Calf Raises
I completed 5x5 at 95 lbs. This was still easy, but 5 pounds a workout should keep this moving up pretty quickly.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 2.5 lbs. Abs were hard last time with no weight. So of course they were challenging again. But I think that 2.5 lbs is a small enough increment that I can keep this going for a while.

Weight
I weighed 161.0 lbs. This is a personal record for me. It's the first time I've ever stepped on my scale and seen 161 lbs. This put me in a really good mood. I know that this number came mostly from me having a stomach full of water and milk from my workout and after, but it still feels good. I'll be really happy when I can step on the scale any time of the day and see 160+ lbs. I've increased my calorie intake from 3100 kcal to 3200 kcal to keep up with my new weight. Remember that I'm eating 20x my body weight.

June 13, 2011 Workout Summary

My 4th StrongLifts 5x5 workout.Time to add some cool charts and graphs to show my progress.

Lift	Start (6/6/2011)	Current (6/13/2011)	Gain
Squat	135 lbs	150 lbs	+15 lbs
Deadlift	185 lbs	195 lbs	+10 lbs
Bench	145 lbs	150 lbs	+5 lbs
Rows	60 lbs	65 lbs	+5 lbs
Overhead Press	45 lbs	50 lbs	+5 lbs
Calves	90 lbs	90 lbs	+0 lbs
Abs	0 lbs	0 lbs	+0 lbs
Weight	154.6 lbs	159.2 lbs	+4.6 lbs

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 150 lbs.  My squat is now as high as my bench. It's also pretty challenging, but I feel like I can move higher.  I don't see myself stalling until after 165 lbs.

Overhead Press
I completed 5x5 at 50 lbs.  This is still easy. I'm not sore or worn out have my workouts. I do look pretty ridiculous though pressing the bar with 2.5 lb weights on each side. I know that 5 pounds a workout is good progression, and I'll have 45's on each side in no time, so I'm not going to add extra weight or jump higher.

Deadlift
I completed 1x5 at 195 lbs. I did quite a bit of stretching before this workout to get my technique where it needs to be. 195 lbs isn't too hard and I shouldn't stall until well after 225 lbs.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 0 lbs.  I know that last time I reported 5x5 at 5 lbs, but I decided that I needed to increase the incline of the ab bench. I had it at one notch up from as inclined as it could be.  I did this because I wasn't sitting all the way up to my legs.  I thought that it was because the incline was just high for my body to crunch a full rep.  But it turns out that I was just too weak to make the full reps at full incline. Today I was able to do the full reps, so I didn't hold any weight. Also, on the graph, I counted the last workout as doing 0 lbs instead of 5 lbs.

Weight
I weighed 159.2 lbs at the end of my workout. I was surprised yet again when I stepped on the scale. I thought I would hold around 157 lbs for a little bit. I'm getting really close to my personal record on weight.  The highest I've ever seen on the scale was 160.X lbs, so if I make it to 161 lbs, it'll be a record. I still don't believe that I'm eating enough calories to support the weight that I'm gaining, so I'll understand if it takes me a couple more weeks to see that record.  But I'm excited to get and stay over 160 lbs, so I'm really hoping I'll see it by Friday.

June 10, 2011 Workout Summary

My 3rd StrongLifts 5x5 workout. This was a cool workout. Based on my last workout, I thought that there was going to be a good chance that I failed on bench or squat. I was also pretty tired. I wasn't exhausted, but I felt a little sluggish.  The odds were against me, but I made progress in both bench and squat.

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 145 lbs. I paid very close attention to my rest between sets.  I started each at least 4 minutes after finishing the previous set.  I think this really helped in the later sets.  I finished strong and I'm optimistic about getting 150 lbs on Monday.

Bench
I completed 5x5 at 150 lbs. Again, I was careful to get enough rest in between sets.  I didn't have my spotter today, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't end up dead from impatience.  I finished strong on this lift too which made me pretty happy.

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 65 lbs. This was easy. I'm still working on technique.

Calf Raises
I completed 5x5 at 90 lbs.  I switched to seated calf raises so that I could raise the weight in smaller increments.  I don't know what my max is for this lift, but 90 lbs was relatively easy.
Abs
I completed 5x5 at 5 lbs. This was pretty challenging. I was holding a five pound weight to my chest and I made sure to bring my knuckles up to my legs on each rep.

Weight
I weighed 157.8 lbs. That's up 3 pounds in 5 days which can't be right.  There's no way that I gained 3 legitimate pounds, but it still feels good to see the number on the scale.  My record weight is 160 lbs. I've never seen anything higher on the scale for any reason.  I expect this number to hold steady for a week or two though before I see more weight gain.

June 8, 2011 Workout Summary

My second workout on the SL 5x5 Program. This was my first time doing workout B of the program.

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 140 lbs. My legs really hurt before starting my lifts.  Luckily, the soreness went away after my first set. The second through fourth sets felt really good. I could feel my legs reaching their max on the fifth set. I don't think that I would have been able to get off a 6th rep on my last set.

Overhead Press
I completed 5x5 at 45 lbs.  I was a little worried about my flexibility and being able to do these with good form.  I did a lot of stretching doing these lifts.  I hadn't done these before, so I had no way to know what my max was. The 45 lbs was very easy though.

Deadlift
I completed 1x5 at 185 lbs.  My 1x5 max was 225 lbs.  I cut back quite a bit to work on my form.  I don't think that I was anywhere near failure on my last rep.

Abs
I completed 5x5 at 0 lbs.  I abandoned the abs machine in favor of doing abs on an incline abs bench.  I started with no weight, but I will hold weights in the future.

Weight
I weight 156.2 lbs at the end of this workout.  I was pretty surprised to see this. I'm not eating enough to gain 1.6 pounds in 2 days and I thought my weight was already pretty high last time I weighed myself.

June 6, 2011 Workout Summary

This is my first workout of the SL 5x5 Program. There was nothing really special about this workout.  No personal records, just easing into the program.

Squat
I completed 5x5 at 135 lbs.  My 1x5 max was 165 lbs.  Since I'm doing 5 sets instead of just 1, I knew that I would need to lower the weight pretty significantly.  After performing the sets, I think that was a good starting point.  I don't feel like I was too far off of my 5x5 max.  The last set was plenty challenging.  I almost regret starting that high because my legs were killing me the next day.  It was okay though, because as you'll see in my next couple posts, I was able to continue with my progression in weight.

Bench
I completed 5x5 at 145 lbs. Here, I knew my 1x5 max was 155 lbs, so I decided to go for 145 lbs.  This almost turned out to be a mistake because I was really pushing on the last rep.  Again, my chest hurt pretty bad the next day.

Rows
I completed 5x5 at 60 lbs. I had only done rows on the machine which goes against all the ideals of weight and strength gain.  So I didn't have a starting weight.  I chose to go with 60 lbs, because no one was using the 60 lb bar, and I wanted to start really low so that I could work on my form.  These reps were a piece of cake and I had no soreness the next day.  I'm excited to keep going up on these.  I think the form will be easy as I go up in weight because I have to keep my knees pretty far forward with the low weight.  With a higher weight, I should be able to push my butt back farther. I need to work on my flexibility for this lift.

Abs
I am doing abs every workout for that six-pack.  I was dumb enough to do these on the machine which I later decided was unacceptable so I'm not counting anything for abs today.

Calf Raises
Again, I did these on a machine so I'm not counting anything.  I'll do seated calf raises next time so that I can load exact plates.  The machine only allows increments of 20 which is of no use to someone who wants to go up by 5 or 10 pound increments.

Body Weight
I weighed in at 154.6 pounds right after the workout.  This is actually pretty good for me.  I'm been hovering around 152, so I was actually pretty happy to see 154 on the scale.

How to Build Muscle

I think that everyone instinctively knows one thing: muscle and strength are directly correlated. You can't be strong without having a lot of muscle, and you can't have a lot of muscle without being strong. Think about it, when you look at a big guy on the street, you naturally assume that is strong. And at the same time, you assume that the skinny guys are weak.  You'd be surprised to see a guy with sticks for arms benching 200+ lbs.

I've seen literally hundreds of body building workouts on the Internet.  They all focus on doing high(8+) repetitions and giving your muscles a week rest period before you work them again.  You end up with all kinds of split routines that work a single group of muscles each day of the week. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, these workouts don't build strength.  They just really wear out your muscles. They're probably throw in some physiology like how micro-tears in your muscle are what cause your muscles to rebuild themselves larger than before, and they'll have you believing that they're on to something special. But if the body-building split workouts were actually effective at tearing your muscles, then everyone using those workouts would see tremendous growths in their strength (and size of course).  I can personally testify that you will not see awesome strength gains on body building workouts.  In fact after a year of a body building workout, I can say that my bench press went up a pathetic 20 lbs. I also lost 5 pounds in body weight. And trust me, it wasn't from following the workout wrong or not putting in the effort.  I was in the gym 3 days a week like the routine called for, and I rarely missed a workout.

So the routine that I'm going to be using from now on is a strength building program. I got it from StrongLifts.com.  You can sign up for an electronic book to learn more.  To get a quick overview of the workout I'm following check out the StrongLifts 5x5 Program. Note that regardless of how long you've been lifting weights, you are a beginner according to StrongLifts.  They have an intermediate and advanced program, but those are for people who have completed the beginner program.

How to Gain (or Lose) Weight

It is sad that this isn't common knowledge. The fad diets, weight gain products, and general false advertising to people who want to change their body image have led to a lot of confusion about how to really gain or lose weight.  The simple truth is that you need a certain number of calories to support your body's activities for the day.  If you eat more than that, you will gain weight. If you eat less, you will lose weight. To find out how many calories you need in a day, check out this calorie calculator. If you read the label on the food that you buy, you'll be able to see the number of calories in the nutritional information box.

How much extra do you need to gain weight? If you want to gain 1 pound of fat, you need to eat 3500 extra calories. If you want to lose 1 pound, you need to eat 3500 than your body needs. This is only a rough estimate because your body will also build/use muscle when you gain/lose weight.

I am personally trying to gain weight so the number of calories I am eating is 20x my body weight in pounds.  Today I am 155 lbs so I am going to eat 3100 calories today. According to the calorie calculator, I need about 2400 calories given that I workout 3 times a week. So my calories excess is (3100 - 2400) = 700 calories. That means that I'm going to gain roughly a fifth of a pound or one pound every five days.  This might not seem like a lot, but remember that my goal is muscle gain, not fat gain.

At the same time, you might be thinking that 3100 calories seems like a lot to be eating.  Trust me, even for a hard gainer, this is possible. You don't need supplements or whey protein to make it happen. If you eat when you get up and consistently throughout the day, you can get all 3100 from regular food.  However, there is an easier way: WHOLE MILK. The whole milk that I'm drinking has 150 calories per cup which is 300 calories for a regular glass of milk. If you drink a couple glasses of milk with every meal, you'll have a much easier time getting all your calories. If you want to really aggressive about gaining weight, you can drink as much as a gallon of milk a day. This should be accompanied by strength training.  Without strength training, a majority of the weight you gain will be fat, but with strength training, your weight gain will be almost entirely muscle. Although I am going to go into more detail about the type of training that you should do, I feel need to say here that strength training should use compound exercises like squat, bench, deadlift, push press, and barbell rows.  Isolated exercises like tricep pulldowns, bicep curls, calf raises, etc... are going to do little or nothing for your overall strength.

If you're trying to lose weight but not muscle, you should eat close to your daily caloric needs and strength train at the same time. Strength training uses energy for two things: the act of lifting the weight and muscle recovery. Muscle recovery will actually use more energy than the lift itself since recovery continues for hours and days after an exercise.  So if you eat only what you need and do strength training, your muscles will use the fat in your body for recovery resulting in losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.

What is a hardgainer?

In the simplest terms, a hardgainer is an individual who finds it difficult to gain weight.  Here are some of the symptoms of being a hardgainer:

1. If you eat when you "feel like it", you typically lose weight or hover around an already low weight.

Hardgainers are the "eat to live" type of people.  They aren't the type of people whose mouth starts to water from a juicy food commercial. Food doesn't comfort us and has no ties to emotions. In fact, a hardgainer might find it hard to eat when they are particularly emotional. For hardgainers, eating is nothing more than a way to stop their stomach from growling. If we didn't have to eat, we wouldn't. Ha ha, so maybe there a few foods that we enjoy to eat on a full stomach. For me, it's crab legs. But in general, food just isn't fun.

As a result, we tend to eat only when our body requires us. This is source of our low weight, because our body will call us to eat roughly enough to maintain our current body weight. If we eat when our body tells us to, we stay the same weight.  And if you're like me, you'll tend to postpone eating when it's inconvenient such as when you wake up, are in bed, or just plain busy. This is where the weight loss comes from. I can't count the number of nights that I've gone to bed with my stomach growling right before I fell asleep, and it shows up on the scale.

The point is: to gain weight, hardgainers have to eat more than what they want.

2. You don't like large portions

I am constantly amazed at how much food people can eat in one sitting.  It doesn't matter how hunger I am, I just can't eat as much as other people.  Part of it may be that I have a small stomach that can't hold as much. It may also be harder for me to ignore the signals by brain receives telling me that I should stop eating.  Whatever the reason, I just can't sit and force myself to eat the same quantity of food as others.

3. It is easy to ignore hunger

If you're a hardgainer, it's probably easy for you to go an extended period of time without eating.  You may not feel hunger as strongly as others, and you may also notice that the hunger goes away after a period of time and you don't have the same desire to eat.  This is a survival mechanism of the body.  When it goes a certain period of time without food, it will switch to starvation mode where it stops relying on the food in your stomach for energy. It will begin pulling energy from your fat stores and, unfortunately, your muscles. But, at the same time, you will stop feeling hungry so it is easy to continue whatever you are doing without eating. It is important as a hardgainer to eat every time you feel hungry, especially if your goal is muscle gain since you lose both fat and muscle when you are hungry.